April is Autism Awareness Month.(It’s also National Pecan Month. You’re welcome.)

I don’t want people just to be aware of autism. I think we’ve accomplished that.Virtually
everyone, at least peripherally, knows about the disorder, and the statistics are no secret: 1 in
88 children, 1 in 54 boys.

All of us know someone, or know someone who knows someone, who has a child with an autism
spectrum disorder: a child who is unable to speak or lacks social skills, a child who seems to
retreat into a private world.

Being unaware of autism at this point would be fairly difficult.

The time has come, I think, to move past awareness to acceptance.

People with autism live in a world that is, at best, uncomfortable and, at worst, simply
impossible.

It is a world that isn’t constructed to meet their specific needs; and, more often than not, a
world that doesn’t try to understand them as individuals, only as diagnoses.I’m done with autism
awareness; I’m ready for autism acceptance.I know that autism is hard — really hard. I also know
that the disorder comes with often-hidden blessings.

Here are my top three:

• Many people with autism are wholly transparent: no games, no ambiguity and complete honesty.
(Want to know whether you’re having a bad hair day? Ask someone with autism. Or don’t ask; he or
she might tell you anyway.)

• The love of many with autism is fiercely loyal. (Whether the target of the affection is a
friend, teacher, book or TV show, the love endures.)

• People with autism feel completely free to be themselves. (If you don’t like that, they don’t
care. Authenticity is beautiful.)

Understanding, not pity.

Appreciation, not simple awareness.

Different, not less.

Grace Burtch, 25, of Westerville is an intervention specialist at Oakstone Academy, a private
school chartered by the state.